From Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, (i. 214.)
(See [the preface to the last ballad but one].)
"O are ye my father, or are ye my mother?
Or are ye my brother John?
Or are ye James Herries, my first true love,
Come back to Scotland again?"
5 "I am not your father, I am not your mother,
Nor am I your brother John;
But I'm James Herries, your first true love,
Come back to Scotland again."
"Awa', awa', ye former lovers,
10 Had far awa' frae me;
For now I am another man's wife,
Ye'll ne'er see joy o' me."
"Had I kent that ere I came here,
I ne'er had come to thee;
15 For I might hae married the king's daughter,
Sae fain she wou'd had me.
"I despised the crown o' gold,
The yellow silk also;
And I am come to my true love,
20 But with me she'll not go."
"My husband he is a carpenter,
Makes his bread on dry land,
And I hae born him a young son,—
Wi' you I will not gang."
25 "You must forsake your dear husband,
Your little young son also,
Wi' me to sail the raging seas,
Where the stormy winds do blow."